Endorsements : 1

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Seattle-based Datasphere provides a hyper-local neighborhood news and paid features platform for local media, and includes telemarketing services. The program Precision Targeting by Neighborhoods partners with primarily broadcast sites to increase market penetration and revenues and now has sales in the millions across multiple broadcast markets who receive a revenue share. The white-labeled hyper-local sites require users to register by selecting the neighborhood about which they want information, then serve that neighborhood news the next time they log in. News includes hyper-local press releases from the "cutting room floor" and paid features sold to local merchants. Paid content appears as images with a small text line on the right rail of the sites, and rotate into the key news hole, although most of the value to merchants is in the SEO. Datasphere acquires and manages the merchants (avoiding the protected list of TV customers and top prospects), builds the creative and traffics the ad. The media client simply adds the Datasphere neighborhood targeting service platform to its existing news and advertising platform, places a 300 x 250 ad on its website to drive traffic, and share the revenue it drives. Additional features include sponsorships, coupons, deals, product reviews, e-newsletters and business directories. Web-based content management system includes semantic search with automatic statement completion (suggestions) and “did you mean” functionality; automatic topic pages and content targeting; push-button site deployment; UGC features such as discussions, voting and social-media integration; a self-service portal; and outbound marketing features such as SEO, SEM and auto-syndication. Business model is revenue share. Customers include Gannett Broadcasting, Meredith and the Arizona Republic. Check out their case study.

Endorsements by :
John Triplett

Endorsements : 2

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Guarantee Digital provides a turnkey package of digital services and integrated reporting for local media resellers. The Guarantee Digital Agency Partner program claims to allow local media to launch a fully-branded digital agency in six weeks. Named an SMB Future Star by BIA/Kelsey.

Endorsements by :
Craig McCormack,
everton weeks

Endorsements : 1

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Local.com provides a co-branded online business directory for local media resellers. It's a pay-per-lead model. Media drives traffic to their own site, and takes advantage of significant SEO traffic from Google searches.

Endorsements by :
Laurel Lane

Google Consumer Surveys is widget that publishers can add to high traffic areas of their sites to require readers to complete a short poll before continuing reading. How it works: Google charges anyone who wants insights on consumer preferences 10 cents for a completed one question on micro-survey which they run across their network of media sites. Anyone who wants consumer insights can buy a survey on GoogleConsumerSurvey's site, with a minimum buy of $100. The survey polls are coded to appear half way through a story, blocking the content until the questions are answered. Publishers control where, when and how often to place the surveys. Business model: The publisher keeps 5 of the ten cents for every question answered. Typically, the polls have a 10 to 20 percent completion rate for news sites, so that means 5 cents x .20 x pages = total dollars. Strategies include using polls to monetize high traffic areas that otherwise do not have either ads or paid content, such as photo galleries, and presenting other alternatives to the poll, such as email registration, which is incorporated into partner options. Customers include McClatchy which tested this partnership in a major market in 2012 with six figure revenue gains. In this case study, Shaw Meida programmed their polls to only show up to the same visitor once a day. This yielded about $450 a month in one small market, but as an owner put it, "like picking a quarter up off the floor." Significant revenues here for heavily trafficked media sites

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Endorsements by :
Mark Dobie

Dream Local Digital provides a white-labeled turnkey approach to a reselling a full set of digital marketing services to local merchants. Services include fulfillment of social media presence and management, blog posting management, email marketing design, set up and management, SEO including search engine registration and listing management, key word optimization planning and execution, SEM placement and PPC campaign management, mobile site, landing page and marketing, video optimization, distribution and marketing, and reputation management. Founder Shannon Kinney is an expert in leading advertiser seminars, presenting to more than 5000 local merchants in 2012. Business model includes a revenue share. Case study on partnership with Kenosha News that yielded $25,000 in new gross revenues monthly is here. Also see this model and company referred to in "How to start a digital services agency" here.Customers include the Kenosha News.

Endorsements : 1

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MediaProwler offers to partner with local media companies to provide email list services and targeted mailings to regional and national advertisers. Founded by an East Coast Press association, the Washington Suburban Press Network, a group of 108 Washington and Baltimore suburban newspapers. Products include creative for email newsletters and targeted lists that merchants can create via a self-entry platform without seeing the names. Services include a training channel. Pricing to merchants is $25/M to $55/M depending on size and scope of list choices; business arrangement with media partners is a revenue share. MediaProwler has a dedicated advertising sales staff and reps of members WSPN newspapers can sell email-marketing services as well. LocalMediaInsider case study is here.

WashingtonPost-owned ServiceAlley is a home services marketplace where home owners can rate and review services. Business model is pay per lead. Open to partnerships with other large media companies.

LocalEdge Internet Marketing, owned by Hearst Corporation, supplies digital services to Hearst properties and also white-labeled back end services to other large newspaper companies. Services include SEO, Social Media Marketing, SEM, online video production and editing, email marketing, repotation management and web design. *Case study pending.
This Company was mentioned in a LocalMediaInsider blogTakeaways from The Digital Media Summit.

Read the full story on how Morris Publishing Group uses LocalEdge; 'Agency 2.0- How Main Street Digital Grew Digital Revenues Tenfold in Two Years' at LocalMediaInsider, here.